Napalm Death's Scum: the blueprint for grindcore as it exists today. Armed with only some low production value and some piss and vinegar, this album is guaranteed to be either hit or miss. Musically the pace is chaotic and quick throughout, and vocally it's not much different. You won't be able to understand a word of it, but it's irrelevant in long run; this album pioneered grindcore. You should check this album out only if you're into Napalm Death, grindcore, or aggressive low-fi chaos.

The paragon of intensity. Napalm Death's debut full-length plots out the future of grind core masterfully. From the muddled verses backed by blast beats and finger-numbing riffs to the old school thrashy moments, everything melds together well. The lyrics are interesting in their simplicity, even if one may find their politics to be dubious. A landmark release.

Liverpool's own Napalm Death didn't just create a grindcore CD in the form of their debut album, Scum; they managed to give birth to a chaotic record filled to the brim with incomprehensibly amazing, hardcore-esque shouts, blast beats, thrash-oriented riffs, and short (albeit mind-blowing) tracks. This is one album held responsible for the foundation of the grindcore subgenre and - with its undertones - shall continue to go down in history as a landmark effort. Napalm Death, to summarize, begs the question: "You suffer... but why?"

On influence alone, Scum deserves a 5. This is the album that invented grindcore and popularized the blast beat, and without it the metal genre would look very different than it does today. Further testament to Scum's strength is that, despite being nearly twenty years old, its songs don't feel dated. Of course, the production is pretty bad, but that comes with the territory-- this album was recorded for almost nothing-- and, actually, the lo-fi-ness works very well for the vibe of the songs. I do wish the guitars were a tad louder in places, though. But, regardless of complaints, at the end of the day Scum is one of the most influential metal records of all time, and therefore a must-listen album. 4.9